Evacuation Planes Dispatched After Attack on Israeli Soccer Fans in Amsterdam

Dutch mobile Police officers stand guard after several scuffles broke out in the city center following the UEFA Europa League, League phase – Matchday 4, football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Amsterdam on November 8, 2024. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof described “anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis” in Amsterdam as “unacceptable”, in a message posted on his X account. (Photo by VLN NIEWS/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:09 PM – Friday, November 8, 2024

Foreign authorities reported on Friday that violence targeting Israeli soccer supporters had left five people hospitalized and over 60 arrested in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

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Social media users shared videos of ongoing violence in the city’s streets. One of the videos, which NBC News geolocated to the region around Amsterdam’s central station, showed a number of crazed individuals chasing and physically attacking another.

On Friday, police stated that brutal violence targeting Israeli soccer supporters had left five people hospitalized and over 60 arrested in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.

In another video that NBC News referenced, supporters of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv were seen singing “Let the IDF win” in Amsterdam, in addition to tearing down a large Palestinian flag.

Israel received word of the ongoing attacks and sent several commercial planes to transport supporters home after Israeli and Dutch leaders condemned the anti-Semitic incident.

Additionally, the scenes after the game between Dutch powerhouse Ajax and the Israeli team were characterized by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema’s office as “very turbulent, with several incidents of violence aimed at Maccabi supporters.” “Rioters” had “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them,” according to the statement.

Halsema said during a press conference on Friday that the city has now implemented emergency measures, including a ban on protests. She called the incidents a “shame” for the city.

During Friday’s news conference, Amsterdam’s acting police chief, Peter Holla, announced that hundreds of policemen were sent from all around the nation to help with policing after several incidents in the hours before the game.

He also explained that in the square where Israeli supporters had assembled before Thursday’s game, pro-Palestine protesters had also gathered, and that authorities had trouble separating the two boisterous groups.

Holla noted that the majority of the violence began after the game.

On Friday, Netanyahu received a briefing in the situation room of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the incident.

He stated that Israel “cannot accept this” and that the violence “puts us and them, the free countries and the Netherlands, in danger,” according to remarks released by his office.

He likened the event to Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of Broken Glass,” which took place on November 9th, 1938, nearly 86 years ago, when Nazi troops staged a pogrom in Germany in which mobs viciously attacked Jews.

The president of the Jewish State made comments as well.

“Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

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